Two top figures in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for president criticized President Donald Trump’s decision on Tuesday to fire FBI Director James Comey.
In an abrupt announcement of Comey’s termination Tuesday, the White House said Trump was acting on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In a memo Tuesday, Rosenstein accused Comey of bungling the investigation of Clinton’s private email server.
Brian Fallon, the press secretary for Clinton’s campaign, told CNN after news of Comey’s firing broke that “all these months later, it still stands out that Director Comey’s handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation was a travesty.”
However, Fallon said, “the timing and nature of this firing that the Trump administration is announcing now belies any possible explanation that this has anything to do with the Clinton investigation.”
“It is clearly an act by a president who is feeling the heat from the FBI’s ongoing Russia investigation,” he said.
Fallon called for a special counsel to be appointed inside the Justice Department to investigate Trump, and for Congress to establish an independent select commission with subpoena power “to get to the bottom of this.”
Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, wrote on Twitter that the firing terrified him:
Twilight zone. I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled. But this terrifies me.
— Robby Mook (@RobbyMook) May 9, 2017
